The Notoriety of Lawrence Bishnoi : Jail Cell, a Global Network, and a Diplomatic Firestorm

Lawrence Bishnoi, 31, a vegetarian with a bushy moustache who, officials believe, runs a violent gang from his high-security jail cell in India, is at the centre of a diplomatic feud between Canada and India. According to Indian law-enforcement sources, Bishnoi is a ‘dreaded gangster’ who, over the past decade, has made a daring prison break, threatened a Bollywood celebrity and had his crew accused of killing a rap artist considered a rival.

His reputation has elevated him to hero status in his Punjabi village of origin. However, in Canada, he is accused of being an Indian government enforcer whose criminal network brutally punishes political dissidents and enemies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Canada claims that Bishnoi’s group has assisted Modi’s administration in contracting criminal groups to assault and kill Canadian Sikh separatists whom India considers terrorists.

India denies the charges, and both countries dismissed top ambassadors this month, trading harsh condemnations. All this attention has only fuelled Bishnoi’s rise to prominence in Indian pop culture. A new online series, ‘Lawrence—a Gangster Story’, will follow his life.

The authorities claim his gang’s expansion into Canada is part of his plan to become a global underworld player. His network, known as “dreaded gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s organized terror-crime syndicate”, is also active in Australia, Italy and Dubai, according to police and security officials. “Bishnoi plans to become a notorious don,” stated a top Indian police official.

Bishnoi, son of a wealthy landowner, belongs to a Hindu sect known as the Bishnoi, which worships Nature and practices strict vegetarianism. Bishnoi avoids drinking tea to prevent being addicted to caffeine, according to his relative. According to court documents, he was initially charged in 2010 with allegedly rioting with a lethal weapon while organizing an enthusiastic university student group.

Public records reveal nothing about Bishnoi’s life after his student arrest. But, in 2015, he managed a daring escape from the authorities. He was being driven back to prison following a court hearing and, when his police detail stopped for dinner at a wayside restaurant, Bishnoi bolted and leapt into a waiting white car driven by another gang member. Court documents say that a partner driving another car tried to run over the police officers. A couple of months later, Bishnoi was arrested once more.

The police say he has stayed in jail since then, charged with terrorism, arson, murder, extortion and drug smuggling. He has denied all the charges. Until his trial, he is being held in the high-security part of Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad, where Mahatma Gandhi was also held. His cousin, Ramesh Bishnoi, says Bishnoi is being watched all the time in a small cell where he is being held alone. He does yoga and meditates every morning before it gets light.

Despite the limits put on Bishnoi, his gang has grown and become more ambitious. Procuring cell phones in jail by bribing guards and officials is easy. Police and security officials say it is possible that Bishnoi is using the same method to talk to, and control, his gang. Officials, however, deny that Bishnoi has access to phones. According to stories in Wall Street Journal, Sweta Shrimali, deputy inspector-general of police at the Ahmedabad jail, said, “He doesn’t live a fancy life in jail.” But Biswhnoi had earlier been able to get hold of a phone while in jail. He told an Indian TV station in an interview aired in 2023 while he was in a different prison that people would throw phones at him over the jail wall. It became public this month that the Bishnoi group was in Canada.

Police officials from Canada allege that Indian government officials paid members of the Bishnoi gang to kill people and commit other crimes in Canada. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police even claimed that three killings which happened between 2022 and 2024 were linked to the Indian government.

Indian officials have long said that Canada is encouraging extremism in the Sikh community there, where activists are pushing for the creation of Khalistan, a separate Sikh ‘homeland’ with its main city in India’s Punjab. India has prohibited the separatists within its borders and believes Canada is not doing enough to suppress them.

In the Indian television interview, Bishnoi declared he was an Indian nationalist and opposed Khalistan. “I don’t believe our nation should be divided into separate entities,” he stated.

India has strongly denied Canada’s assertion that the Indian authorities collaborated with Bishnoi. According to a spokesperson for the Indian foreign ministry, India has been warning Canada for years about the infiltration of Bishnoi’s group members in Canada. However, Canadian law enforcement officials have not taken any action.

Canada has accused Indian government agents of involvement in the 2023 assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Despite the fact that all four of the individuals in question were on student visas, Canada has charged them with the murder of Nijjar.

In September 2023, Sukhdool Singh Gill, another Sikh, was assassinated in his residence in Winnipeg, Canada, just one day after his name was added to India’s ‘most-wanted’ list.

In 2022, Bishnoi established connections with Canada. In that year, Satinderjit Singh, also known as Goldy Brar, one of Bishnoi’s closest associates who had relocated to Canada, claimed responsibility for the murder of Sidhu Moose Wala, a famous Punjabi rapper who lived in the country. Drake, a Canadian hip-hop sensation, mourned the rapper’s death. Eight assailants were purportedly responsible for pursuing Moose Wala in Punjab and fatally shooting him in his jeep.

In India, Brar is a wanted individual who maintains a significant connection to Canada. In 2017, he relocated to Brampton, a city located just outside Toronto, on a student visa. Brar was unavailable for comment, reports WSJ.

A shooting at the Canadian residence of renowned Punjabi vocalist AP Dhillon was allegedly the responsibility of an individual who is purportedly a member of Bishnoi’s organization. The shooter uploaded on social media a video of himself discharging a gun at Dhillon’s residence.

Bishnoi’s notoriety has reached such an extent that it is becoming increasingly challenging to differentiate between fact and fiction. In a 2020 court filing, Bishnoi claimed he was not involved in much of the crimes that were allegedly carried out by him. According to the filing, he was already in jail and quite incapable of taking part in any capacity in committing the offences attributed to him.

According to acquaintances and neighbours, Bishnoi hails from a village in India’s Punjab and has participated in horseback riding, volleyball and cricket. According to Surinder Kumar Bagria, the village council’s chairman, speaking to WSJ , Bishnoi was a “disciplined, well-behaved, God-fearing boy” and a gifted pupil.

Bagria stated that his circumstances underwent a transformation following his enrolment in college to pursue a law degree in the state capital of Chandigarh. He entered a world of student politics that was violent, where rival factions frequently employed violence to intimidate members. The authorities assert that his criminal career commenced from that point.

In his hometown, Bishnoi is well-regarded. Praveen Kumar, a resident, declared, “He’s our hero…hero of our village, hero of society.”

(The author of this article is a Defence, Aerospace & Political Analyst based in Bengaluru. He is also the Director of ADD Engineering Components, India, Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of ADD Engineering GmbH, Germany. You can reach him at: girishlinganna@gmail.com)